Repeated power outages in Regent Square, Wilkinsburg frustrate residents
For Kayla Mento, having reliable power at home is imperative.
Ms. Mento is a UPMC contact center specialist and works from her residence in Regent Square, scheduling doctor’s appointments for patients.
Yet in recent months, performing that task has become impossible at times because of regular power outages — sometimes multiple outages per week — that have left her with no choice but to defer her duties and lose a day’s pay.
“We really depend on having power throughout the day,” said her boyfriend, Mat Feher.
Other residents in Regent Square and Wikinsburg, some of whom have lived in the area for decades, say they have been hit not only with hourslong outages during storms but also regularly flickering lights on clear days — leaving food spoiled and unpleasant conditions on hot days without fans and air conditioning.
Susan O. Kellen has lived on South Braddock Avenue in Regent Square for 25 years. She said outages have “definitely” become more frequent and lengthy this year, citing one episode in which power went on and off dozens of times. She worries about her appliances and devices, particularly computers.
“It’s more than it ever was before,” she said.
Niki Campbell, a spokeswoman for Duquesne Light, which serves the area, wrote in an email that the company recently identified a possible source of the outages and is working to resolve the problem.
“Duquesne Light is aware of the recent outages in the Wilkinsburg area that have become a source of frustration for our customers over the past month,” she wrote.
“We discovered an issue that is contributing to these outages and we have a team of engineers and field personnel that are actively analyzing the situation and working as quickly as possible to implement a solution.”
At noon Wednesday — hours after an overnight rainstorm had
ended — Duquesne Light reported on its website that 105 customers in the 15221 ZIP code, which encompasses Wilkinsburg, Edgewood and Regent Square, were experiencing outages.
That represented close to half of all of Duquesne Light’s posted outages in the Allegheny and Beaver county areas at the time. By 4 p. m., power had been restored to customers in the 15221 area.
While longtime Wilkinsburgarea residents say that power outages used to occur at most a few times each year, in recent months even a moderately heavy rain seems almost certain to result in an outage.
“This was never a regular occurrence,” said Gina Medwid, who has lived on the border of Wilkinsburg and Regent Square for close to four decades.
“This is regular,” she added. “This is consistent. This is now the new normal.”